Felice Cohen - Half In: A Coming-Of-Age Memoir of Forbidden Love

PRAISE FOR FELICE COHENS

HALF IN: A COMING-OF-AGE MEMOIR OF FORBIDDEN LOVE

Half In is ever tempting. But the only way to live is all in, pedal to the metal. Felice Cohen's journey is full of potholes, bumps, sharp curves but she makes it home.

Rita Mae Brown, author of Rubyfruit Jungle

Filled with the exquisite joy of new love, and the pain of walking away from it, Half In is an intimate memoir about growth toward self-awarenessand toward the poignant realization that love calls for a wholehearted commitment.

Foreword Reviews

Felice keeps it real in Half In. She shares her struggles. She shares her thoughts. She shares her truth. She shares her journey of maturity. She does it in an entertaining light that most readers will come to appreciate.

Reader Views

Felice Cohen shares her story without holding back any facts and details and that helps readers understand how the affair shaped her and how the repercussions affected her daily life.

Readers Favorite

I could not put this memoir down. Felice Cohen walks us through her experience of first lovea relationship that could easily be labeled as scandalouswith honesty, humor, and insight. It is as if she is cracking open an old diary and inviting us inside. Meeting Felice through Half In is like making a new friend.

Jodi S. Rosenfeld, author of Closer to Fine

Filled with sparkling conversations and haunting encounters, this page-turner seeks to enlighten as well as pay tribute to a once in a lifetime love.

Booklife

Half In is a top recommendation not just for LGBTQ collections, but any library strong in either coming-of-age stories or memoirs about age-disparate love.

D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

Half In by Felice Cohen is both poignant and witty. Felice beautifully captures the angst she experienced growing into the person she was meant to become, helping us understand how our experiences, relationships, and connections shape us in ways we often dont realize until we are much older. Half In is a touching love story, coming-of-age story, coming out story, and growing up story that made me laugh and cry. I couldnt put it down and strongly recommend you pick it up. Im all in with Half In.

Lucy J. Madison, Author

Beautifully written memoir that left me with a feeling of healing that can only come from recognizing the universality of life experience. I feel renewed in reading this book because Ive realized that part of my own struggle is rooted deeply in past choices that Ive not yet learned to accept and embrace.

Suzie Carr, author of the critically acclaimed novel, The Dance

I couldn't put this book down and read it straight through. The authors honest and provocative account of loving someone in secret and the futility of finding peace in the silence, will in retrospect, leave readers profoundly touched as the reminder of this memoir will play in your head like a cherished tune.

Sally A. Monti, author of Light at the End of the Tunnel: A Memoir

Copyright 2022 by Felice Cohen

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Publishers Cataloging-In-Publication Data

(Prepared by The Donohue Group, Inc.)

Names: Cohen, Felice, author.

Title: Half in : a coming-of-age memoir of forbidden
love / Felice Cohen.

Description: First edition. | New York, NY : Dividends

Press, [2022]

Identifiers: ISBN 9798985701708 (paperback) | ISBN

9798985701715 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Cohen, Felice. | Lesbians--Biography. |
May-December romances. | First loves. |
Self-acceptance. | LCGFT: Autobiographies.

Classification: LCC HQ75.4.C65 A3 2022 (print) | LCC
HQ75.4.C65 (ebook) | DDC 306.76/63092--dc23

Cover design: Miladinka Milic www.milagraphicartist.com

Poems used by permission by Rita Mae Brown.

If You Were Mine Words and music by Ann Reed 1990, used by permission.

www.felicecohen.com

Manufactured in the United States of America

Also by Felice Cohen

Books

What Papa Told Me

90 Lessons for Living Large in 90 Square Feet (or More)
The Fancy Tale Series

Anthologies

I Bared My Chest

In the Shadows of Memory: The Holocaust and
the Third Generation

Habits & Attitudes

The Future of Property

Grandmas & Grandkids

Personal Dedication

A Fathers Advice

This book is my own personal experience and my memories of a certain period in my life. In some instances, events have been compressed, characters have been combined and dialogue has been re-created. The names and identifying characteristics of some persons described in the book have been changed for reasons of privacy. This is because this is not a book about the individuals I have described, but about my own experiences and how they shaped my life.

To Mom and Dad

For always loving, encouraging, supporting and
accepting me

Contents

Prologue
Friday, November 8, 2002

Who the F--- Am I?
19911993

Whats Next?
September 1993December 1993

Decisions, Decisions
January 1994May 1994

Between a Rock and a Really Hard Place
May 1994August 1994

I Got This!
September 1994November 4, 2002

Epilogue
Six Months Later

Deja Vu: Watching Old Movies on the Late Night Show

By Rita Mae Brown

Once I saw you

When you were 27.

Strange to see you

At the point I find myself.

Film makes time and history optional,

Perhaps Im 51

And youre 27?

No,

I am 27

And you are 51.

What does it matter, anyway?

You look much the same

Handsomer now

Except

The years are rivers

Widening our conceits into slavery

Narrowing our arteries into cowardice.

Does age really bring with it knowledge

Or is it the knowledge of self-defeat?

Did you ever have a dream above applause?

Did you strike a hard bargain with the devil of fame?

And did you lose something along the way?

You did, I know you did.

Whisper then to me

Whisper the dream quickly

Lest I become older in this instant

Intoning a catechism of congratulation

For my mind that respects no boundaries.

Whisper it

So that I might grow rather than age.

Friday, November 8, 2002

Cancer craves sugar. Sarahs voice echoes in my head on this chilly November afternoon as I pull up behind four other cars already parked in front of her cottage in South Hadley, Massachusetts. I half expect Sarah to burst out the front door as she usually does upon my arrival, often wearing a colorful sweater, more recently her head hairless, shouting, Where are they? I am under strict orders to bring Krispy Kreme doughnuts at every visit.